Dorothy: [00:00:00] Cancer never checks to see whether you have any savings account, whether you have insurance, or even if you have a place to land. Today I am talking with Dixie Melillo, our doctor, our co-founder, and the person who’s behind every new idea we ever had here at The Rose. But this idea is something very different. She has one big dream and that’s to somehow have a St. Jude style hospital for breast cancer. She wants to have a place where women can receive treatment and everything else they need, and it doesn’t depend on whether they can pay or not. We’re thinking about the moms who hear you have cancer and then start doing the math job insurance, rent. Even who’s gonna watch the kids and how a place like this could be the ultimate change in that [00:01:00] story and the reason for survival. Dixie and I have done a lot of hard things before, after all, we co-founded The Rose, but this one is gonna be one of the hardest things that ever, ever happens Knowing Dixie. And her determination, it will come true.
Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose, a breast center of excellence, and a Texas treasure. You’re gonna hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re gonna learn why knowing about your breast could save your life.
Dr. Melillo. Thank you so much for being with us today. Dixie. Dixie, thank you. You know, The Rose started with a dream. We didn’t have a clue how we were ever gonna do this thing, and I [00:02:00] want you to talk about your newest dream, but give us a little background on why The Rose got started, how it got started.
Dr. Dixie: I’m telling you. It goes back. In fact, I now, I almost feel like I’m back in 1983. Helpless, helpless, helpless. Um, you know, that’s when I started doing surgery. Got outta my residency, went to Bayshore. There were virtually no women surgeons back there. I mean, I was the second one that ever graduated from UTMB. And.
Dorothy: So you were the first woman, anything we had there.
Dr. Dixie: Well, but um, you know, it’s like, uh. No one really wanted me. And, and bless his heart, Dr. Epstein said, hell, you can take over my practice. So I was put there and everybody was looking at me like I was some kind of creature that, you know, I mean, women can naturally cut and sew. I mean, it ought to be, they should anyway. Um, but mainly back then I was sort of funneled all of the, the [00:03:00] breast lumps and, and the mental process back then was if you feel something, you take it out. If it’s cancer, you go ahead and take the breast off. There were no mammograms or ultrasounds or biopsies or anything. Then.
Dorothy: It existed. But yeah, it wasn’t common practice.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah, and And I had trained in Galveston, in all fairness. They had a good breast program. They had a, of course back then it was like a Xerox mammogram, but boy, you could see things at Bayshore, all they had was a little foam they put under the breast and they hit you with the same rads they did a broken leg. I mean, it was like 46 rads instead of three or something. It was ridiculous.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Dixie: So all the people in town kind of sent me all the breast lumps, okay? Because they did not want to deal with this stuff, you know.
Dorothy: No.
Dr. Dixie: Women and their emotional status and all that. So they were, I got more and more and more breast lumps and I have to tell [00:04:00] they told Dorothy that she worked, what per public relations? For the hospital. They said, you have gotta go over there and sell this woman. Now you’ve gotta make people like her. You know, and you’ve gotta tell people she’s, she’s not dangerous. So.
Dorothy: Well, I don’t know if it was that bad, but it was pretty close.
Dr. Dixie: It was a sign to me to make, to make me palatable to the community. And, uh, you know, I just, it was, it was okay if you could. You know, these people, if they had insurance and, and they could pay, and then we would take ’em into Bayshore and we would cut the lump out. I would never do the mastectomy. At the same time, I refused to traumatize a human like that. I, you know, if it was cancer, we’d sit down and talk about it and then decide, you know, this is what you need to do.
Dorothy: Hmm.
Dr. Dixie: But, uh, as a result, I was just sent everybody with a palpable loan. Problem being a whole lot of these young people or people with breast [00:05:00] or cancer that had no insurance. You can’t just take ’em in there and take it out. I mean, here you have a lump and it could very well be a cancer and what are you gonna do? There was no way. You know, and, and, and I told Dorothy, Dorothy, you gotta do something man. You can’t just sit there and watch this cancer, eat people up because they don’t have insurance. And, uh, it, it was just very perplexing, you know? And, and I told God, I said, now God, you have got to do something. ‘Cause we have got to take care of these people.
Dorothy: And, and you have to remember, so God, you, God said your. No, you have to remember this is the mid eighties.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: The oil bust. Everybody’s losing their job. I mean, there were more foreclosures that year, those three years than ever in history ever again. So a lot of people had lost insurance. That they had had through their, their company.
Dr. Dixie: Absolutely.
Dorothy: I mean, it was a very, [00:06:00] very, uh.
Dr. Dixie: Hard time.
Dorothy: Sad time.
Dr. Dixie: You know? But still the big hospitals, the charity hospitals, if we could make a diagnosis Yeah, they’d take ’em.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Dixie: The problem being with the charity hospitals, they were overloaded with car wrecks, gunshot wounds, this, that and the other, and a painless lump in the breast to get, even, to even get an attention in one of these charity hospitals would take, could take a year or two. You know? Because if you didn’t prove it was cancer, they wouldn’t give.
Dorothy: They weren’t interesting.
Dr. Dixie: They wouldn’t give them the time of day. And if you could prove it was cancer, though, most of the big hospitals even had a charity program, you know, I mean like MD Anderson Methodist, all they had a charity program and so what we, you know. I think the crowning blows that, that remember that 3-year-old I made you come over and take a picture of her cancer was so big, it covered the whole breast. It involuted and you could see the muscles on her chest wall. It had eaten so bad. And we did take a [00:07:00] picture of it. And I put that picture in my, my book and i, I just think it, it was just. We were both blown away.
Dorothy: And she had three kids.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: She had nowhere to go.
Dr. Dixie: Nowhere to go.
Dorothy: And what I remember from that case, and of course there were 13 of them that year, dear.
Dr. Dixie: Oh yeah.
Dorothy: You know, I, I kept going, how could there be another one? I hated to get your phone call. I know on a, you’d say, Dorothy, get your camera. And I’d go, oh no, not another one. But I know on that particular young lady. I remember you looking at me and saying, the only thing I can do is hold her hand while she dies.
Dr. Dixie: That was it.
Dorothy: And it was just so, you gotta remember I was a lay person, you know, this, this wasn’t part of my world. Um, and, and I think for me, that’s when it became real.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: It became a matter of this isn’t just something we’re trying to market or sell. These are people’s lives
Dr. Dixie: and you know. [00:08:00] I don’t, I don’t wanna say I don’t have any businesses, but I don’t, I don’t know, you know, what, what to do and, and Dorothy. Dorothy, bless her heart. She knows what to do. She says that she’s gonna make a, I still can’t get it straight. Is it a 5 0 1 C?
Dorothy: Yeah. We had to apply for a 5 0 1 c3.
Dr. Dixie: Something like that.
Dorothy: For a nonprofit status.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: So that we could get donations.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: Now Dixie, people were willing to donate.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah. And they were ready to. A lot of the donations were from you and me.
Dorothy: I know. At that time. But there were other people that were wanting to help us.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: They understood. But we had to have that mechanism. We had to have, uh, the vehicle for them to give to, but I also think we learned real quick, we couldn’t just raise money and send them somewhere else because the somewhere else would never follow them all the way through.
Dr. Dixie: That’s right.
Dorothy: You know, we had like 54 on the waiting list when we opened.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: And you got [00:09:00] determined to, we have to have our own center. We have to be able to manage this. We, we, have to have that ability to say yes or no. And, and it, it was that thinking that started The Rose. You know, we, we knew we couldn’t just be the clearing house for someone to donate money and then we send them to another hospital, or we send them over to a, an imaging center.
Dr. Dixie: And, and we made a deal with Bayshore. If they would get a real mammogram machine.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dr. Dixie: That we would go out in the community and talk and give talks and, and show, you know, the benefits of mammography and all that. We would get them customers if they would lower the price.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Dixie: And, and they did for a while. They did. They. But. But.
Dorothy: But there was no answer for the women that had no insurance.
Dr. Dixie: No. There was no way to do it. And, um. I just can’t tell you how marvelous this woman is. She could, she raised money every way you could imagine in your entire [00:10:00] life. She had me dressing up as a model and doing fashion shows.
Dorothy: Dixie, you were gorgeous. I mean, I loved it.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: Yeah, yeah. And you always said, oh, go put me in that bet.
Dr. Dixie: And then sometimes they would give me the clothes, those little shops, but it was really cool, you know? But she come up with ideas and oh my gosh, she would put me in for any award that ever came out just so we could raise awareness, you know and she, oh, you just won this award. And I went. Oh, really? What? What did I do? You know?
Dorothy: All right then. Now Dixie, let’s fast forward here.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah. Well.
Dorothy: We’ve been doing this 40 years.
Dr. Dixie: Yes. And we have, I mean, for the first 30 something years, it’s worked really well. But right now, now it’s the different time. Okay? Now, having a diagnosis is not enough because so many of the, of the hospitals, of the programs that were helping us, [00:11:00] they just can’t do it with this, with the economy the way it is. They can’t, it’s not that they want, I mean, I know doctors at each one of these hospitals that if I get on the phone and I ball like a baby, they’re gonna sneak ’em in some way, you know?
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Dixie: Because I have, I mean, if I get a 30-year-old with a bad cancer, that I know could really survive. And, and you know, I call certain of my friends in oncology, they will get ’em in. But now they’re telling me, Dixie, we just can’t, man, we can’t, they won’t let us. I mean, they won’t even take certain kinds of Medicare. Medicaid.
Dorothy: Medicaid. Right. And, and that’s part of our, that’s big challenge is that yes, the state has a program. It’s a Medicaid program and many of the hospitals, Methodist Memorial, I mean, uh, MD Anderson, they simply are not on that network. They’d be out of network.
Dr. Dixie: Not anymore.
Dorothy: And it would cost the patient a lot of money. But the, the, the thing is that program is very limited. It’s criteria is very [00:12:00] clear, 200% poverty level, and they have to be a citizen. And it even gets down to, there are, I think we have 15 women on our list right now, just since March, who we’ve diagnosed. What happens when, you know we’re not gonna be able to get up into treatment?
Dr. Dixie: Well, it breaks my heart. I mean, it breaks my heart to sit and tell a woman she has cancer. But, but this is like 1983. I don’t have anything to offer you. You know? And, and can you, can you imagine in your wildest dreams what it’s like you have this monster on your chest and you can feel it and it’s growing. I mean, you can even feel it grow and you could totally be cured, but no one will help you and your family has to watch it grow. And I mean, that’s a sin.
Dorothy: [00:13:00] Hmm.
Dr. Dixie: That is a sin.
Dorothy: And we are talking about low income people working.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: Two and three jobs.
Dr. Dixie: Absolutely.
Dorothy: Once they, that woman gets to that stage, she’s almost not able to work.
Dr. Dixie: And now they’re younger.
Dorothy: They’re younger. Yes.
Dr. Dixie: They’re younger. I’ve had 10 people in their thirties in the last six months. And that’s not little cancers. And unfortunately most of ’em were uninsured ’cause they, you know, they didn’t tend to do it early.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Dixie: Because they had no place to go but us.
Dorothy: And and of these women that right now in my hand, I know we’re trying to find some treatment for three are in Harris County. All the others are not in Harris County.
Dr. Dixie: I know. I know.
Dorothy: There’s just nothing for, you know, and part of what The Rose does is serve a lot of people at a lot of counties, but when we are in a county that doesn’t have public health or doesn’t have anything, then those women are looking to us to help. Get them into treatment.
Dr. Dixie: Well.
Dorothy: Unfortunately, some of them make the decision to move to Harris [00:14:00] County so they can get into Harris Health. I, I, you know, we used to, we used to be very reluctant to even talk about that, but not anymore. This is ridiculous.
Dr. Dixie: Honey. Even in Harris Health, you can’t get in.
Dorothy: Even, it takes a long time. Heaven forbid you have, you’re here on a tourist visit visa or anything like that, you’re, you’re not gonna do it. But Dixie, think about this. This woman is gonna leave her home, maybe her children because you don’t just get up and move.
Dr. Dixie: No.
Dorothy: And how many of them have had to divorce their husbands? Because the, the combined income pushes them over.
Dr. Dixie: Stupid. It has to be.
Dorothy: She loses all benefits as a wife.
Dr. Dixie: You notice they married. No.
Dorothy: No.
Dr. Dixie: That’s why we’ve gotta have a hospital.
Dorothy: Talk about this dream you have now.
Dr. Dixie: We have got to, got to, got to have a breast health hospital and I mean this even extends to like abscesses of the breast that these people can’t get taken care of. Can you [00:15:00] imagine that hurts? It really hurts to have a big pus pocket in your breast and.
Dorothy: And it’s treatable!
Dr. Dixie: And it’s so fixable.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dr. Dixie: You know, you stick a little needle and drain it out and little antibiotics and it goes away and there’s just no access to care right now for treatment. And, you know, we did wonderful diagnosing it, and I’m glad we can still do that, but man, it’s, it’s almost, I feel almost criminal when I make a diagnosis and then I know what I’m gonna do. You know, I, I don’t know what you’re gonna do that’s wrong.
And we can do this. No, there are enough good people. And in fact, I’ve always said it ought to be a model for healthcare anyway, that the people who our interest in this thing, take care of it. Don’t depend on the government giving you money or the city giving you a charity. We need to take care of ourselves. I mean, there should be hospitals for diabetes for this, that the people that have it, they contribute their money and they, they learn and, and another [00:16:00] really. Sadly neglected part of this is prevention. So much of this cancer could be prevented if people were just told what’s setting it off.
You know, but no, no, you can’t make no money in prevention with prevention. Oh my gosh. You can’t get, you know, you, you can’t do treatments if, if people don’t get sick. I mean, the healthcare industry is the biggest health industry in the United States. Employing more people. Oh my gosh. If, if we were to tell you not to get sick. Oh, that would just screw up everything.
Dorothy: But I want you to stay on this dream of hospital.
Dr. Dixie: Well, and that’s why we’ve got to have treatment.
Dorothy: And a big part of this hospital would be, and what would this hospital look like?
Dr. Dixie: Like St. Jude’s, where you wouldn’t never get a bill if you couldn’t afford it. And, and honestly, if I could just, when I tell these people they have cancer, if I can say, now just go on over here to the hospital. Check in. We’ll get started on your plan and your treatment. You know. They have done, I have, I have [00:17:00] read PO or you know, articles, podcast class about, oh, to the stress that women under undergo when they’re diagnosed and they, they need to go through Accu Acupuncture and massage and this and that and the other. Yeah. Well, what if you get told you have cancer and then nobody’s gonna take care of you.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Dixie: Is Massage gonna help that?
Dorothy: I don’t think so. No.
Dr. Dixie: You know, um. We just gotta do it. This is the time is right. The need is there. And I know there are people out there who care, who don’t wanna see somebody’s mother, sister, daughter, you know, man, God, we got 20 year olds with breast cancer. They don’t wanna see their child die of breast cancer.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Dixie: When it’s, I mean, most of this, honestly, most of it is totally curable. I mean, I, people say, oh, well how can you take care of these ones that are, so I have a lady who still comes to see me. She had a cancer so big 15 years ago. It was the size of a [00:18:00] cauliflower eaten out of the side of her chest. Okay. And it had blood and she had let it go. Stunk so bad. And, uh, she, she decided, oh, I wanna live, you know. And so I took care of her. You know, I, we, she did everything we, she was supposed to do surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and she’s totally cured. And I mean, I carry this pic, this picture of her, and she knows it, and she, you know. She, she doesn’t mind and it doesn’t have her name on her or nothing, but I showed, you know, she’s still alive and comes to see me every six months. Now it, it’s so funny ’cause some of the people tell her, you don’t need to come every six months. It’s been so long. And she, Linda says, oh, excuse me. She says, oh no, you don’t understand. It makes Dr. Melillo very happy to see me. That’s why I come. I said, yes, as long as, as, as long as she’s still alive. There’s hope for everybody. You know, and, and hope to me is [00:19:00] a, there’s no, no, no situation. I wouldn’t have hope in.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Dixie: You know?
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Dixie: It’s in God’s hands. If he decides you’re gonna be cured, you’re gonna be cured if he, you know, it’s totally, I mean, God’s hand has been on The Rose forever.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Dixie: So many times we thought, oh, this is it. We’re going under a bunk, and somehow God provides us with some awesome. Person that donates incredible amounts of money and, and the buses and the coaches. Oh my God, that’s a miracle. That is a miracle. That’s the hand of God. You know, and I mean, if he took a little bean head like me and made a doctor out of her, he can do anything, you know?
Dorothy: But Dixie God also gives us the ability to treat these things.
Dr. Dixie: Yes. Oh yeah.
Dorothy: And how frustrating that we have women, so many women, that we can’t get into treatment. Not for any reason. I, I wanna be real clear, it’s not always a legal status thing.
Dr. Dixie: No mercy.
Dorothy: No. [00:20:00] Many times, no, it is. They’re a hundred dollars over the.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: The limit for income. Hence they have to divorce their husband.
Dr. Dixie: Oh. The husbands have to cut, you know, cut their hours at work. That’s a sin.
Dorothy: And, and they also have to be here five years if they’re a, have the green card, the residents. 10 years of working quarters. Now, this is a little, that one of those little things that, uh, it’s part of the requirements. And most folks wouldn’t even understand it. But how many of our lower income women have worked for 10 years can show you on their social security? Here’s, here’s my working history. Many of them are paid as housekeepers. As you know. Their husbands are cash, cash paid. They can’t show it, or they have to use their husbands.
And if they don’t have that 40 quarters of work, think about it. Then you’re out of luck [00:21:00] again. It is. There’s so many, it’s ridiculous. Different nuances about what qualifies you and what doesn’t. I, I tell, I tell my staff. Patient navigation helps our patients who are diagnosed with their application process. Well, that doesn’t sound like a big deal unless you know that that application just the, just the application alone is 40 pages. And you miss one line and it gets re it gets.
Dr. Dixie: Kick it back.
Dorothy: Kicked back. So, you know, our navigators are just in, they’re the ones that are incredible.
Dr. Dixie: Oh, they’re awesome.
Dorothy: They’ll find any way they can. But we’ve had some doors closed that aren’t gonna reopen, that used to have charity programs that we could get our women in. Who fell in that crack? Who fell through the yes ma’am system. And it’s gonna be more and more think about with the changes in a CA affordable healthcare, we’re gonna see [00:22:00] many more uninsured.
Dr. Dixie: Oh yeah.
Dorothy: And they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna qualify. So, so here we are in the United States, one of the wealthiest countries around, and we have people dying.
Dr. Dixie: From things they don’t need to die from.
Dorothy: Things they don’t need to die from.
Dr. Dixie: I mean, it’s ridiculous.
Dorothy: I cannot tell you how many of our, my guests who are insured will say, I, I knew I was gonna survive. I, I knew I just had to get to the hospital. I had to follow things. There was no doubt in their mind, no, because they had insurance. But our uninsured women will always say, I didn’t know how I was gonna pay for this. You know, I didn’t even know if I was alive.
Dr. Dixie: Physiologically that stress, that cortisol release. This really hurts your immune system to fight that cancer.
Dorothy: Oh yeah.
Dr. Dixie: You know, I mean, I, I, I don’t mean to, to play down the stress of being diagnosed, but the [00:23:00] stress of being diagnosed and not knowing how you’re gonna get care is a thousand times worse.
Dorothy: That’s exactly what you just said. They had no hope. They have no, no confidence, no no possibility. They are left to die. I mean, it.
Dr. Dixie: It’s so sad to be dying of something that could be cured. That’s just wrong.
Dorothy: All right. What would you do to get this hospital started?
Dr. Dixie: Well, I already told God that we need this hospital and I’ve, I’ve told him exactly, you know, I wanted to be, anybody can go there, you know? And we’re gonna have the best doctors. And nurses and staff that really care. Okay. They’re gonna be treated like real, compassionate human beings, and they’re gonna be taught nutrition and prevention and, and really even cutting out the, the sugar and the carbs during chemo. Makes the treatment work better?
Dorothy: Oh, yeah.
Dr. Dixie: Oh, and what is the standard of care now? They give you an insurer for God’s sakes. Well, they’re giving you chemo. They’re [00:24:00] feeding the cancer, you know, I mean, a PET scan. Okay. They people don’t know what a PET scan is. A PET scan is what they use to see the size of the cancer and the locations. Do you know what they inject you with for a PET scan?
Dorothy: What?
Dr. Dixie: Radioactive sugar, because the cancer takes up 200 times more sugar than the surrounding structure. Duh.
Dorothy: Done.
Dr. Dixie: Would you not tell that patient, uh, let’s not feed this cancer. Okay. I mean, the breast cancer cells have six times more insulin receptors on ’em than a normal cell. They suck sugar. They get the first part of any sugar.
Dorothy: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Dixie: And, and everybody’s just like looking the other way because it offends the sugar industry.
Dorothy: Well, I don’t think everybody is. ’cause you’re certainly not.
Dr. Dixie: Oh, no, no. Not everybody, but, but let’s, but the, but so many people are just, oh no, that’s not standard of care and Oh, no, no. People can need anything they want. That’s not true. We’re being lied to.
Dorothy: But until, you know how this [00:25:00] medical world looks and have and operates until they have that study, that’s absolutely.
Dr. Dixie: Oh, they, they have it.
Dorothy: Well.
Dr. Dixie: They have it.
Dorothy: According to most of them. They don’t.
Dr. Dixie: They have. It, they have it. They don’t teach it in medical school. They don’t teach it in residency because 80% of medical school is paid for by the Phar Pharmacologies industry. And they are not gonna teach prevention and they’re not gonna teach metabolic health.
Dorothy: All right. So this hospital.
Dr. Dixie: I think they’re gonna start, but, but this hospital is going to take care of everybody.
Dorothy: You’re gonna have a whole wing that has nothing but prevention.
Dr. Dixie: That’s right.
Dorothy: And.
Dr. Dixie: I’m gonna, and I’m gonna have free childcare for the employees. That is childcare is ridiculous. A lot of people that are really good can’t work. And you know, you don’t want your child halfway across town getting sick when you’re trying to work.
Dorothy: Or no. Well, would would it just be for employees or Yes. For patients too. Who needed that care for their day?
Dr. Dixie: No, that’s a good idea. Good idea. Yeah.
Dorothy: If they’re in, because you know how much, how many times [00:26:00] compliance becomes an issue.
Dr. Dixie: No, you are so right.
Dorothy: That is ’cause they don’t have anyone to take care of babies.
Dr. Dixie: Excellent, excellent, excellent.
Dorothy: And you know, that’s the other thing. Can breast cancer no longer is the disease of the middle aged woman or the older woman?
Dr. Dixie: No ma’am.
Dorothy: As you’ve said, young, young, young.
Dr. Dixie: No ma’am.
Dorothy: I mean. Uh, the, just trying to raise children and be go through treatment is, is a nightmare.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: But boy, when you have no help and so many don’t.
Dr. Dixie: I know it.
Dorothy: Then it, it becomes another issue.
Dr. Dixie: See, and that’s why I love so much like navigation, putting on this Christmas party.
Dorothy: Oh yeah.
Dr. Dixie: Buying presents for these women with no money, no insurance that have children. I mean, see that’s what The Rose is about. That’s what compassion and caring and, and you know, that’s what’s so lacking in today’s world and we’ve gotta bring it back.
Dorothy: So how big is your campus, dear?
Dr. Dixie: Probably 15 acres. You think that’s big enough?
Dorothy: No, but it’s a start.
Dr. Dixie: Well, I mean, it’s just a thought. [00:27:00] I don’t know. I honestly, I don’t.
Dorothy: I want, I want anything people to see it. I want them to see it in their, you know, it would be, I want when you walk through the doors. I never saw our hospital having a, here’s someone waiting on you to tell you. Uh, like a desk, like a reception desk. I always saw you walked in and someone is coming to get you.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: Someone is coming up to you already knows you’re there, ready to take you somewhere you’re not.
Dr. Dixie: Absolutely
Dorothy: waiting. You know, 90% of I think, and only because I’ve had enough of my own issues to have to wait. And you’re waiting for that next appointment. You’re waiting for someone to see you and when you finally get in the office, it’s seven minutes maybe.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah. And one, one problem. Or else they.
Dorothy: Or.
Dr. Dixie: Another CPT code or something.
Dorothy: So you know, wouldn’t it be wonderful if somebody was really there? Your person [00:28:00] knows you like you know your patients. And knows that it’s been a hard time ’cause your mother died that year.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: Or all the other things that go on in our life. People are not just a one disease entity. They are.
Dr. Dixie: Well. They treat ’em like they’re just a disease and not a person.
Dorothy: Right, right.
Dr. Dixie: We’ve got to, we’ve, we’ve gotta make a difference.
Dorothy: We have made a difference now, Dixie, but.
Dr. Dixie: We gotta keep it.
Dorothy: You have a new dream and that’s what we’re talking about. The St. Jude Hospital for Breast. Breast Cancer.
Dr. Dixie: Breast Cancer. Um, I just know that, I know that I know that it’s gonna happen. ’cause I know there are good people out there who, who really believe in this and who can see the fallacy of dying of something so curable and taking out our young people.
Dorothy: And why do, why does having money or insurance dictate whether we love or die? You know, that is not a.
Dr. Dixie: It’s wrong.
Dorothy: There. That is not right.
Dr. Dixie: That’s wrong.
Dorothy: You’re absolutely right.
Dr. Dixie: You know [00:29:00] what I mean? Access to healthcare should be a right to for everybody, you know?
Dorothy: You know, it’s not even close to that.
Dr. Dixie: Oh, wow.
Dorothy: But the other part of it is it’s not even, there’s not enough, uh, hospitals treatment to even go around.
Dr. Dixie: I know.
Dorothy: So this is not an unreasonable dream. This is a dream that needs to happen and needs to, and needs to get in place.
Dr. Dixie: And I really believe now is the time. I really believe that somebody’s gonna hear this and they’re gonna make fun. You know, you have to realize I’m a dreamer. And she’s, no, she understands this ’cause I just come up with these wild ideas and somehow she makes it happen. So.
Dorothy: But it’s not just me, Dixie, you’ll have.
Dr. Dixie: It’s just you.
Dorothy: You’ll have your group around you that’s, that’s gonna make it happen.
Dr. Dixie: God better send, he’ll never can send me somebody as goodies you.
Dorothy: Yes, he can. And I think.
Dr. Dixie: I mean, I would tell her we’ve gotta do biopsies. We’ve gotta do biopsies. We, we [00:30:00] gotta have ultrasound. We gotta have stereo. And somehow, somehow she would make it happen.
Dorothy: But, you know, Dixie, this was the one thing I never could make happen was your hospital. And I, I knew of, wanted it from day one, so I am so glad that you’re here talking about it. So glad that you’re sharing this dream.
Dr. Dixie: But you’re still gonna be on my shoulder advising me, right?
Dorothy: I’m, I’m even.
Dr. Dixie: You’re not going.
Dorothy: More delighted me. I’m more delighted that you’re opening up to our true problem.
Dr. Dixie: Damn.
Dorothy: To how serious this is. It is. It is so serious. And we can’t look the other way anymore.
Dr. Dixie: No, this is wrong.
Dorothy: We’ve spent the last year trying to work around trying to find plans, trying to, to make it work for the patients. And without more available treatment, women are gonna die.
Dr. Dixie: Yes.
Dorothy: And we can’t help.
Dr. Dixie: And that’s [00:31:00] preventable.
Dorothy: Yes. So let’s, let’s see this dream come true.
Dr. Dixie: It will. No, I, um, I really feel more than ever in my whole life that this is the time. End.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Dixie: And you know, I really know. I mean, God knows I’m a business beanhead. In fact, they don’t even let me have anything to say up there. ’cause they know I’d be giving everything away. And we would have gone under years ago if they hadn’t said, no dicks, we’re not gonna stay with $50 mammograms. Remember how I used to say.
Dorothy: Oh yeah.
Dr. Dixie: And they said, no.
Dorothy: Listen, I’ve lived with you for 40 years. I know everything about you.
Dr. Dixie: And you know, honestly, I’ve been a doctor for 50 years. I have never ever. Not seeing a patient because they couldn’t pay. I have never turned someone away because they owed me money. I, I don’t, I don’t understand that, you know, I know now I’ve never turned somebody over to a [00:32:00] collection agency. But did you know.
Dorothy: And, and you’ve not let us do that.
Dr. Dixie: Recently I got turned over to a collection agency. I went. To this, uh, little practice next to me to get a TB shot. Okay. It was like 15 bucks and I begged them to let me pay. Please let me pay, you know, I’ve got insurance, but it, I, you know, let me pay. Oh, no, Dr. Melillo, we would never make you pay. Six weeks later, I get a letter for a collection agency for $15. I mean, they were mortified when I took it to ’em. It was a mistake, but.
Dorothy: It happens. It’s a system. It’s the way it is.
Dr. Dixie: I thought. Excuse me, I have never not paid a bill on time in my entire life. You know? That’s why I run around.
Dorothy: And what if you didn’t have that $15?
Dr. Dixie: Wow.
Dorothy: What? What if?
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: And so many of our women have to make a decision.
Dr. Dixie: I understand.
Dorothy: That, is it my health? Or is it [00:33:00] food on the table?
Dr. Dixie: Oh, and that’s, that’s the biggest problem. Cancer doesn’t hurt, you know, in the breast it can get huge and it’s really not painful 99% of the time. And here you’ve got children that wanna eat and you wanna go see a doctor, oh, that’s $80 copay or something like that. You know, they’re just not going to take care of themselves. Women always put themselves last. You know, and we have got to.
Dorothy: So your hospital would be a women first, and you would not only make sure it’s women first.
Dr. Dixie: Absolutely.
Dorothy: It would be that.
Dr. Dixie: But men have breast cancer. They could go.
Dorothy: Oh, we know. We know. But, but it would be that emotional.
Dr. Dixie: Yeah.
Dorothy: And that’s psychological.
Dr. Dixie: Yes. Yes. And knowing that you’re loved and you’re cared for, and, and you know, I mean, that you’re hugged, I, I hug all my patients, you know, and.
Dorothy: Well, [00:34:00] you’re gonna see it happen.
Dr. Dixie: Sometimes you’ve gotta be held, sometimes you just gotta be held.
Dorothy: Yep.
Dr. Dixie: I go home and, and my, I have makeup all over my coats and everything. And there’s what? Yeah. What happened to you? Well, you know, somebody hugged me today, you know, and I, it’s, to me, it’s a badge of honor. You know, when you’re scared you need to be held. You know, and I’m, I’m so old now, I’m like Mother Melillo to everybody, you know. I’m gonna be 80 this year.
Dorothy: I know.
Dr. Dixie: Is that not awesome?
Dorothy: It is. It is.
Dr. Dixie: It blows me away ’cause I feel good and I’m having fun and
Dorothy: Well, and you’re at the perfect age to start this hospital.
Dr. Dixie: I am. So Moses was 80.
Dorothy: Well.
Dr. Dixie: When, when he led the people outta Egypt. So he worked till he was 120. So it could happen.
Dorothy: It could happen. Hey, I believe you woman, I’ve believed you for all these years, so I know you’ll make it happen with some help. And that’s what this podcast is all about.
Dr. Dixie: Well, God make, God will make it happen, and I will be his little helper. I just [00:35:00] want him to know I’m available, sir.
Dorothy: Yep. Yep. All right, so one last, last word.
Dr. Dixie: Be kind. Don’t forget kindness, compassion. Let’s, let’s go back to caring for one another. If you take care of God’s people, he will take care of you. You know, I’ve never seen it fail that I’ve. I’ve had everything I ever needed and he has supplied it and I, we’ve just got to return to kindness. Be kind. I agree.
Dorothy: Thank you my dear for being here today.
Dr. Dixie: Well, thank you.
Dorothy: And thank you for sharing this awesome dream.
Dr. Dixie: And I’m gonna keep sharing it with you.
Dorothy: Alright.
Dr. Dixie: I need you.
Dorothy: It’ll happen.
Dr. Dixie: But at least now you don’t make me dress up funny. ’cause I look so old and funny looking.
Dorothy: Dixie. Oh, alright. Thanks to [00:36:00] our listeners who.
Dr. Dixie: Oh yeah.
Dorothy: Gave us this time.
Dr. Dixie: Now somebody out there is gonna hear this and they’re gonna say, yes, yes. This is a good idea. Yes. This will give me purpose to help people. I know y’all are out there now. I know you’re there. So come on, let’s get on board. Let’s do this thing. I need some help here.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is produced by Speke Podcasting and brought to you by The Rose. Visit therose.org to learn more about our organization. Subscribe to our podcast, share episodes with friends, and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember self care is not selfish. It’s essential.
